What a strange thing...Other than a few examples tech has been a proven looser since the late '90's. Wonder why financial analysts would ever have jumped back on the bandwagon? Could it be that tech companies fail be cause they spend their R&D funds on buying analysts and marketing nothing? Surely not.

... to surveys of confidence. Is this really such a good way to measure the underlying performance of a sector, or of the economy as a whole? Strikes me, if anything's going to kick off a self-perpetuating rise or fall in confidence, it's surveying peoples' confidence and publishing the results.

IT has always been almost uniquely vulnerable competition from emerging markets. Only call centers and some parts of finance are similarly vulnerable.

Think about it, the only thing you need to start is a relatively low outlay on computers, an off the shelf broadband infrastructure, and skilled workers.

The skilled workers take about 5 years to make - educate abroad, some initial experience, then tempt back with high living standards and familiarity,

Most emerging countries have for years paid for their brightest and increasingly the less bright to be educated abroad, then given them everything from tax breaks to legal immunity to come back, after a bit of work.

Excluding work that has to stay in the commissioning country (e.g. defense), why would you want to pay UK salaries for coal face IT workers? Business process experts and other customer facing roles maybe, but a lot of the work can just be shipped. And if your shipping abroad, what difference between you and a native company?

The only straw left to fall is intellectual property protection, and that will be come as soon as it is advantageous for the host countries economy. China for instance is already instituting a two teered approach to enforcing the rights of forighen and native firms. Guess who wins.

good luck trying to run any business without technology today, you will be floored by the tech of the competition.

It is the big tech companies I think they are talking about, and to be honest tech very rarely works with big tech consulting companies, hardware manus perhaps, but even there the small guys are getting better.

The biggest mistake a company can make is getting in big tech, much better to get in smaller tech consultants, than even hire perms, you only need good people, not those after a job for life. And to be honest companies should be told they compete with technology, it is not a utility it is a business tool or weapon.

Companies live or die by their tech nowadays, it is that simple, it is just that the tech knowledge is not in the hands or heads of larger tech companies, it is with the smaller players.

Perception != reality.

Business confidence is influenced by so many things that have no real relationship with the economy and the underlying business performance.

Have a string of sunny days and people feel happier and more positive about everything, Have a gloomy summer and everything looks gloomy.

Win a few gold medals or football cups and everything is sweet, no medals and a string of losses and everything stinks.

Confidence triggers spending. Business confidence triggers business spending.